Topics: Boating

HARWICH — With Memorial Day, people start to get anxious about the upcoming boating season. Harbormaster John Rendon said the early birds are already arriving at their slips in Saquatucket Harbor.
“I’m expecting a good boating season,” Rendon said. “People ask me if I think it’s going to be a terrible boating season, but I think it will be an opportunity for people to get outside, on the water. I think it will...

EAST HARWICH — After about 10 months as executive director of Pleasant Bay Community Boating, P.J. Richardson is taking a different tack.
PBCB board President Ted Baylis made the announcement in an email to the group’s supporters last week. “On Monday, Oct. 28, P.J. Richardson and the PBCB board jointly concluded that a change in leadership was in both his and the organization’s best interests,” Baylis wrote. ...

*This article has been updated to include corrected information as not all of the results information provided was accurate*
PLEASANT BAY – There are many sailing vessels in the world, but the catboat is about as Cape Cod as it gets, and on Aug. 17 catboat enthusiasts set sails aloft as they took to the waters of Pleasant Bay for the 2019 Arey's Pond Cat Gathering.
The 27 th annual event was sailed by 72 c...

CHATHAM – There's actually some good news for boaters: The town's dynamic, shoal-ridden waterways are no more difficult to navigate this summer than last. In fact, some spots have improved. A little.
But local knowledge still remains critical, and conditions are subject to change at any time, Harbormaster Stuart Smith told a capacity crowd at an informational meeting at the community center Saturday sponsored ...

CHATHAM – A short “listening session” last week kicked off the town's effort to square its waterways bylaws and regulations with state and federal rules.
In a meeting that lasted less than half an hour, a handful of speakers raised several questions and made comments about the town's regulations, mostly focused on the contentious issue of moorings.
Waterways officials and the town's waterways advisory commi...

EAST HARWICH — There’s been a change of watch at Pleasant Bay Community Boating. The group’s first executive director, Charlie Sumner, is retiring after three years in office, and former YMCA Chief Development Officer Patrick “P.J.” Richardson is taking the helm.
Richardson, a 48-year-old Centerville resident, has strong ties to the Lower Cape. His parents live in Orleans, and as a youngster he spent most su...

ORLEANS – Mother Nature was anything but cooperative during the 26 th annual Arey's Pond Boat Yard Cat Gathering, but nearly nonexistent winds didn't spoil the fun for participating sailors, although it did slow them down a bit.
The event, a celebration of the classic catboats and those who delight in sailing them, was held Aug. 10 and 11 on the waters of Little Pleasant Bay. While practice runs on Friday wen...

CHATHAM – Blustery weather and soaking rain didn't stop the intrepid sailors taking part in the 2018 Chatham Yacht Club Regatta on Aug. 4 and 5, though more than a few found themselves just a little bit waterlogged.
The Regatta, which featured participants aged 8 to 89, is one of the oldest annual regattas of its kind, sailing each year since 1921. According to sailor Ted Dickson, it is also one of the only fr...

CHATHAM — Despite threats of litigation by shorefront property owners, the town is seeking to move ahead with an emergency dredging plan designed to keep Chatham Harbor open to fishing boats and other vessels.
“This is the most severe hazard to navigation that I’ve seen, not only in my time here, but anywhere that I’ve been in my career,” Deputy Harbormaster Jason Holm told the conservation commission last w...

ORLEANS — Jan Biondi's hands are on the oars of the Chester Yawl rowing craft she built this winter, powering herself and a rider across the sun-soaked calm waters of Town Cove. It's only the fourth voyage for Summer Rose, the 15-foot, 100-pound realization of a decades-long dream.
Those hands on the oars have turned many of Biondi's dreams into reality. They have sculpted and painted, dug up clams, arranged...

CHATHAM – It was a wild winter for the town's waterways, and boaters will definitely need to assess conditions before heading out this summer.
To update local mariners on current navigation conditions, the Monomoy Yacht Club will host its annual harbor update session this Saturday, June 9, at 10 a.m. at the community center.
Four nor'easters between January and March rearranged shoals in Chatham Harbor, the...

CHATHAM – After the 1987 break in North Beach, a long-range plan was developed in response to what was expected to be continued erosion south of Lighthouse Beach. But conditions changed – South Beach connected to the mainland and provided protection for the inner shoreline – and the plan was never fully implemented.
That's just one reason no one was prepared for the devastating effect this past winter's four n...

ORLEANS — Things look good on paper. There are 28 town landings, 28 opportunities to get your boat or kayak into the water.
But “the major impact on every one is adequate parking,” Town Administrator John Kelly told the board of selectmen, meeting as park commissioners, last week. “The number one issue is, we don't have enough parking, regardless of use.”
Except for restrictions during striped bass season...

CHATHAM – Boaters anticipating accessing waters along the town's eastern coast by the usual routes this summer may have to change their expectations.
“Delete last year's GPS” settings, Coastal Resources Director Ted Keon recommended.
Even though they haven't had a chance to explore inlets, navigation channels and popular boating spots in detail because of the weather, officials say that the storms that play...

CHATHAM ─ Wood shavings litter the floor at First Light Boatworks. The air inside one of the building's massive bays is pungent with the scent of cedar. There is something else, as well: a sense of excitement since progress has clearly been made in the build of a double-ended ketch, which is beginning to resemble the beauty she'll be upon completion next June.
This is the part of boat building that First Lig...

CHATHAM ─ Utter the word “planking” to a millennial and they'll immediately conjure up images of a silly internet photo fad. Utter the word to wooden boat enthusiasts such as Woody Metzger at First Light Boatworks and he knows you're talking about the latest addition to a new vessel being built at the shop, a 34-foot double-ended ketch.
For the landlubber, planking is the careful process of affixing long pla...